


don't stop us now, we've started

by wreckingtomlinson



Series: breath of the wild AU [2]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Adventure, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Leaving Home, Light Angst, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, Near Death Experiences, Pre-Breath of the Wild, lots of monster fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-27 14:05:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13882446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wreckingtomlinson/pseuds/wreckingtomlinson
Summary: "Someone's gonna get hurt if we do this," Ashton says, his own voice low. "And not like, a couple of scrapes or a broken bone hurt. Like actually seriously hurt. And maybe you left home to fight, but I didn't leave home to die."~Or, Calum leaves home in search of revenge only to find three new brothers and more adventure than he bargained for.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> this happened because of exactly three things:
> 
> 1\. while writing the [breath of the wild au](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13486641/chapters/30926106), i accidentally gave calum a fuckton of backstory in chapter 3 and then i couldn't stop thinking about it  
> 2\. [emma](http://lesbianharrie.tumblr.com) encouraged me  
> 3\. i'm a fucking nerd
> 
> this is technically a prequel so you don't have to have read the original au to understand it, and you also don't have to be familiar with breath of the wild either! to make things easier i've put links to images for certain things, and if you're the visual type, you might want to check out [this map of hyrule](https://www.zeldadungeon.net/breath-of-the-wild-interactive-map/) because i do mention a lot of places.
> 
> this isn't beta'ed and honestly should have been done days ago BUT i'm going for an overnight tomorrow so i wanted to get this up to attempt to maintain a semblance of a posting schedule so all mistakes and horrendous bits are my own. if anything's super glaring please tell me!
> 
> and finally, the title is from [hearts upon our sleeve](https://youtu.be/SrTP_pllUng) by 5sos

Calum is eight years old when he sees his first blood moon.

He’s the only one up and about in the small house he lives in with his mum and his older sister. He pads down the hall, the rough floorboards creaking under his feet as he steps outside to fetch a drink of water from the well.

He’s just turning the crank on the well when he sees the first flicker of light. He blinks, unsure of what he’s seeing. Maybe it’s just a sunset firefly. Then another one flies past, right in front of his face. He turns around and looks out over the plains.

All around, strange pink lights fill the air, traveling skyward like sparks from a fire. He reaches out to touch one, but it passes right through his hand. And then he sees the moon, full and glowing magenta, rising over the hills to the west. Something about the whole scene feels weird and he doesn’t like it.

He drops the tin cup, the water forgotten, as he runs back into the house and into his mother’s room. “Mumma! Mumma, wake up!” he whispers urgently, shaking her shoulder.

She stirs instantly at the tone of his voice. “What’s wrong, my little darner?”

“Mumma, the moon is red.” He tugs at her hand until she gets up and follows him to the window. “Look!”

His mother just hums. “That’s a blood moon, Calum.”

“A blood moon? What’s happening?”

She sits back down on her bed, and Calum scrambles up to sit next to her while she explains. It happens every few weeks, she says, and when it does, all the monsters that once were dead come back to life.

“Like the Stalkoblins?”

“Not quite. Those are just the skeletons of the monsters. Under the blood moon, they come back as they were before.”

“But why?”

“Because of Calamity Ganon.”

Ganon. He knows all about Ganon, about how he took over Hyrule Castle years ago, back when Calum’s great-grandfather fought in the king’s guard. He knows a little bit about the Champions, but his mother won’t tell him the full story. She always says she’ll tell him when he’s older. But for now, this is explanation enough. He knows Ganon is evil, so it makes sense that the weird lights made him so uneasy. His mother tucks him back into bed and the house is quiet once more.

For the next seven years, he doesn’t see another blood moon. But on occasion, he’ll wake up in the middle of the night and see the disconcerting red glow outside his window, and he’ll pull up the covers and try to go back to sleep.

When he’s fifteen, Calum’s mother finally tells him what happened all those years ago. The four Champions lost their lives when Ganon took over the Divine Beasts, and Louis, the Hero of Hyrule, perished in the fight, too. On that same night, as the blood moon reached its zenith in the sky, his great-grandfather died defending his village. His wife had just had a baby, and was forced to flee to Hateno Village. Their old village burned to the ground, reduced to little more than ashes and dust. It was here in Hateno Village that his grandmother was raised, and where she in turn raised his mother, and where Calum and his sister were born. They’ve been in this town for generations, she tells him.

Calum doesn’t say anything until she’s finished. The distant fear of Ganon that he’d had instilled in him since birth has morphed into something darker, something uglier, something angrier. At fifteen, he’s nearly a man. Goddess, in a year he would be old enough to enlist in the king’s guard, if the king were still alive to have a guard.

His existence here in Hateno Village has been easy, unaffected. Simple. He’d kick melons around the fields with his friends, chat with the shop owners, and pester Dermot and his construction crew. He’d even snuck down to the southern beach, at the age of thirteen, to have his first kiss. But he’s been feeling restless as of late, eager to see what lies beyond the village gates. Before, the threat of the monsters that lurk in the forest had always been enough to keep him here. Now that he’s older, it’s not enough anymore. He feels like his great-grandfather’s fighting spirit is still alive in him, somehow, even though his sister always rolls her eyes when he says as much.

Combined with the anger that’s come to a slow boil once he finds out exactly what happened when the Calamity struck, it’s clear to him that he won’t be happy staying here another day.

His sister isn’t surprised when he tells her he’s leaving, but his mother is a different story.

“It’s so dangerous out there, love. Where will you go?” she asks. “If you’re looking to avenge your great-grandfather, you won’t. There’s no point fighting monsters that won’t stay dead. You won’t feel any better.”

Oh, yes he will. He just gives her a hug and tells her he’s leaving the next day. She makes his favorite spicy seafood and crab dish that night and tries her best to act like it’s any normal evening.

Afterward, he retires to his room to pack the few things he has. A beaten-up shield, a dagger, a bow and quiver of arrows, and a small rusted sword he’d dug up near the beach.

He leaves at dawn, before his mother and sister wake, not wanting to stick around for the tearful goodbye.


	2. The First Month

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warnings for terrible gross cliche pining/flirting at the end of the chapter and uncalled for 5sos lyric references

The first week is hard. As agile and physically fit as he is, fighting is entirely different from playing in the fields, and he suffers more than a few battle wounds within the first twenty-four hours of leaving home. But he picks himself back up, bandages his cuts, and keeps pressing on.

He has no idea where he’s going, so he just wanders, fighting monsters whenever they cross his path and taking their horns and fangs as spoils of his own personal war. His mother was wrong, he thinks as he stabs his dagger through the chest of a particularly vicious [ Moblin ](http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Moblin#The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild) and watches it fall, long snout snapping uselessly at him before it goes up in a puff of acrid purple smoke. With every creature he slays, he feels like he’s following in his great-grandfather’s footsteps. Like he’s getting a little closer to some level of closure.

And as the weeks start to pass, he learns. He learns which berries and plants he can eat, he learns how to start a fire with some flint, and he learns how to fight. He realizes that he can take the weapons off of the monsters he kills, so he does just that, leaving his rusty old sword behind in exchange for sturdier, more lethal blades. He comes across the occasional traveling merchant, but he never has enough money to buy anything, so they ignore him.

Seventeen days after leaving, Calum meets someone.

He’s reached the Great Plateau, looking up at the sheer walls and wondering if he could scale them, when he hears a voice behind him.

“I tried. They’re impossible.”

Calum whirls around, dagger drawn, but stops when he sees who it is. It’s a teenage boy, about his age, with blond hair and a small smirk on his lips. “Trust me. It’s not a fun fall from halfway up.”

“Who are you?” Calum demands, still wary. “I don’t have any money.”

The kid laughs. “I don’t want your money, Goddess. I’m just saying hi. I’m Luke.” He sticks his hand out.

Calum gives the kid a once over before deciding to shake it. “Calum. What are you doing out here all alone?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Luke shrugs. “I wanted to see the world, so I left home and here I am. Where’re you going?”

“I don’t know,” Calum admits. “I was bored at home, too. Felt like…like I was doing nothing when I could be out here.”

“Yeah, I get it. It feels worse than ever these days. But listen,” Luke says, “I’ve been looking for a travel buddy who’s not trying to sell shit all the time. You want to stick together?”

Calum hesitates. Luke seems nice enough, but he doesn’t know how he feels about sharing his journey. “I kind of want to stay solo.”

Luke reaches into his pack, and for a second Calum thinks he’s about to attack. Instead, he pulls out a sheaf of parchment that he unfolds to reveal a detailed map of Hyrule, marked up with monster camps, treasure, and settlements. “You sure?”

Calum hasn’t the faintest clue where he’s going. “Okay, fine. I’ll let you stick around but just so I can look at your map.”

Luke laughs again and drags his finger around the southern half of the map. “I was thinking about crossing the bridge here and heading into the Lake region. I wanna try and see Farosh.”

“Farosh?”

“Yeah. Have you never heard of her? She’s one of the three spirit dragons of Hyrule. I’m trying to find all three, but so far I’ve only seen one.”

Calum listens to Luke chatter on about the other dragons—Dinraal and Naydra—as they head south. He can see the bridge up ahead, shrouded in fog, and the lake below.

“This is the Bridge of Hylia,” Luke tells him. Calum reaches out to touch the stone towers as they step onto the bridge. “So, like, where have you been?”

“Not many places,” Calum admits. “I only left home a few weeks ago.”

“Where’s home?”

“Hateno Village. What about you?”

“Kara Kara Bazaar, in the Gerudo Desert.”

“Holy Hylia, you’re a long way from home.”

“Yeah, but I don’t mind.” Luke grins. “It’s hot out there and I’m pale as a snowcoat fox, so the first place I went was Tabantha so I could finally see snow.”

Calum had secretly thought the kid looked way too pale to be from the desert. Like he’d burn to a crisp if he spent five minutes out there. But he makes no comments and asks no questions. “Where are we supposed to find the dragon?”

Luke shrugs. “I heard she like…hovers around, basically, but she’s around here somewhere. Just gotta be patient.” Suddenly, he stops short, brow furrowing. “We’ve got company,” he says, lowering his voice to a whisper and tucking the map back into his pack. “Can you fight?”

“More or less.” Calum draws his sword. “Do you see something?”

Luke nods. “Up ahead. You see them?”

Calum doesn’t see much of anything in this fog, if he’s being honest. But he can hear the _taptaptap_ of monster claws on stone up ahead. And then he hears the scream.

He shoots Luke a glance, who only nods before sprinting ahead and getting swallowed up by the mist. Fuck. Calum runs after him to find him already engaged in battle with a couple of giant lizard-like creatures. Luke shouts, stabbing a spear into one and chucking it off the bridge. Calum just stares for a second. Now is definitely the wrong time to stand around and admire badassery, but he can’t help it.

Another one jumps in front of Calum, hissing and slashing out with its sword. Calum blocks it, jabbing at its belly to try and find a weak spot, but it’s too quick, hopping from side to side and evading his attacks.

_Thwunk! Thwunk! Thwunk!_

The lizard falls forward, disappearing after after Calum’s registered the three arrows embedded in its skull. Luke runs up to him, breathing hard and holding a bow. His shirt has torn at the shoulder. “You okay?” he asks. Calum nods. “Go find whoever was screaming, I’ll take care of the rest of these.”

Calum runs off, feeling a bit useless. But combat clearly is Luke’s strength, so he’ll do what he’s told. A few yards away, he sees a figure curled up in a protective ball. The pointed ears tell him it’s a fellow Hylian.

“Hey, mate, you okay?”

The figure starts, looking up at Calum with a sharp gaze. He looks barely a year older, if he is at all, with messy curly hair and a boyish face. “Are they gone?”

“Are what gone?”

“The Lizalfos.”

Those must be the lizard creatures they ran into. “My friend’s taking care of them.” He extends a hand to help the young man up. “Are you hurt?”

The stranger shakes his head slowly. “I don’t think so…I took a bit of a whack to the head, so I tried to play dead,” he says, taking Calum’s hand and getting to his feet. “I’m Ashton.”

“I’m Calum, and my friend back there is Luke.”

As if on cue, Luke jogs up to them. His spear is back in his hand, this time slick with blood. “What about me?”

Ashton introduces himself with a smile. “Came up this way from the river, the one that meets the Faron Sea.”

“Oh, the Menoat?” Luke replies instantly. “Okay, okay. Where’d you come from?”

“Lurelin Village, in the southeast. I was bored,” Ashton says with a shrug. “It’s so…calm there all the time. Calm and boring. So one night I took an old fishing boat no one was using and left. Been kind of wandering for about a month now.”

“Hey, like Calum!” Luke slaps Calum on the shoulder. “Where’re you headed? We were gonna try and find Farosh.”

Ashton’s eyes light up. “Farosh? I thought she was just a legend.”

Luke shakes his head. “Nope. I’ve seen Dinraal, so Farosh has to be real.”

“Oh fuck, that’s so cool! Can I come with you?”

Calum and Luke exchange a look. Luke gives a very small nod.

And so their pair becomes a trio. Ashton’s cheerful wit adds a nice contrast to Calum’s general reticence and Luke’s take-charge attitude. He tells them that he turned seventeen the week before he left home, which makes him two years older than both Calum and Luke, and that he had been expected to take over the family fishing boats.

“But it didn’t feel right, you know?” he says as they cross the bridge. “Like, sometimes monsters would camp on the beaches where we wanted to fish, and instead of doing something about it, we just tried to find new fishing spots. It was a matter of time before we ran out and I felt like I was the only one who could see it.”

“And no one could fight?” Luke asks.

“Nope. Like I said. It was too calm all the time. No one taught me how.”

“Speaking of, how’d you get to be such a warrior?” Calum asks Luke. “I mean, you were pretty badass on the bridge.”

Luke beams at that. “My mom’s a Gerudo.”

Calum stops short at that news. It’s known that nearly all Gerudo offspring are female. “Wait, so…”

Luke shakes his head before Calum can try to formulate the question. “I was adopted. My dad’s a Hylian, and he found me in an abandoned house in the Hebra mountains so he took me in. And then he met my mom in Goron City, and they got married and moved out the desert. My mom taught me how to fight as soon as I could walk. Said I just seemed like the warrior type.”

“And are you?” Ashton tilts his head.

Calum would certainly say so, based on the display on the bridge. But Luke shrugs—out of modesty or embarrassment, Calum can’t tell. “I mean, I don’t go looking for a fight, but if I or someone I’m with is in trouble, I can deal with it.”

“Say, do you think you could teach me a couple things? Honestly, I have no idea how I lasted this long outside the village without knowing how to fight.”

“Yeah, sure. We’ll set up camp for the night soon,” Luke suggests, gesturing to the sinking sun. It’ll be set completely in less than an hour, Calum knows. “I know a cave nearby that’s pretty safe.”

The cave, they find when they arrive twenty minutes later, has been taken over by a trio of [ Bokoblins ](http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Bokoblin#The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild). Luke dispatches two of them with ease while Calum slays the last.

“And look, they even left us dinner,” Ashton crows once they’ve cleared the area of Boko remains. The campfire the monsters had been sitting around has some meat on a spit over the flames.

Calum’s stomach rumbles. It hasn’t exactly been easy going from his mother’s delicious cooking to scavenging for whatever apples and small game he could hunt. “Oh, finally, some good fucking food.” He reaches into his pack and pulls out some spicy peppers he’d picked close to home. “My mum used to use these to give the meat a little kick.”

“Mind sharing?” Luke asks.

“Not at all.”

Luke loves the peppers but Ashton says they’re too hot for his taste. The cooking back in Lurelin Village is sweeter and saltier, he explains when Calum teases him for having weak taste buds. Once they’ve all eaten their fill, they relax on the ground, leaning against fallen trees as they trade small stories. Luke is the most forthcoming, regaling them both with tales of the regions he’s seen in the four months since he left home. He tells them of the bird-like Rito people from the Hebra peaks, of a plateau near Hyrule Ridge where it’s constantly thundering, and of a mysterious forest in the north that’s blanketed by a strange mist.

“And that’s only, like, a third of Hyrule!” he adds excitedly. “There’s still so many places I want to see. I heard Zora’s Domain is supposed to be really cool.”

“Wow.” Ashton can only gasp. “That’s so cool, mate. Speaking of adventures and stuff, can you show me how to fight?”

“Yeah, of course.” Luke stands up, brushing the dirt off his trousers and grabbing his sword. “You have a sword, at least?”

“I have this.” Ashton holds up a rusty two-handed sword. “Is that okay?”

“It’ll do,” Luke says with a shrug, while Calum adds, “You can always drop it and take weapons from monsters, too. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

He leans back and watches as Luke gives Ashton a quick lesson, things like showing him how to stand so he won’t lose his balance and how to hold a two-handed sword, before going into some basic techniques. Ashton’s a quick learner, and before long they’re sparring, Luke calling out tips and encouragements as they circle each other.

Luke’s a really good fighter, Calum thinks to himself, recalling how easily the blond had taken care of the Lizalfos on the bridge. He’s quick and agile, despite his height, and Calum would be lying to himself if he said raw, adrenaline-spiked strength wasn’t just a little bit hot.

The warm food and warm fire makes Calum’s eyelids droop before long, and he’s curled up against the log asleep in minutes.

The next day, they set out early in the morning. It’s the best night’s sleep Calum’s had in since he left home. Ashton steals Luke’s map and forges ahead, babbling a mile a minute to himself about the spirit dragons.

“Who gave him a haste potion?” Luke mumbles to Calum, making him snicker.

“Guys! Left or right?” Ashton yells from twenty yards ahead.

“You have my damn map!” Luke yells back, sprinting after Ashton and jumping on his back to tear the map from his hands.

 _This is going to be a pattern, isn’t it,_ Calum thinks to himself as he sighs before breaking into a jog to catch up.

They go left, toward Floria Bridge. Luke says there’s a chance they might see Farosh fly past. The path is hardly visible in some parts, and Calum wonders how long it’s been since people passed through here. The forest thickens, trees tall and bushy enough that the leaves cast most of the forest floor in shade. A few ruins lie crumbling here and there, but for the most part, this region belongs to nature. They meet a few Lizalfos and Bokoblins along the way, but they make quick work of the monsters and continue on their way.

Up ahead, there’s another fork in the road. Luke has the map out, arguing with Ashton over which way to the bridge. It doesn’t help that the only labeling on the map is what Luke’s done himself—since this region is new to him, it’s completely unmarked. Calum lets them argue while he wanders ahead, keeping their voices in range. It isn’t hard, not with the way they’re yelling at each other. That’s when he sees the figure.

Just ahead, in between them and a small log bridge, someone lies limp on the ground. “Uh, guys?” Calum calls. Luke and Ashton run to him, breezing right past him.

“They might be dangerous!” Calum warns, but Ashton has already rushed to the person’s side.

“Hey, hey, are you okay?” Ashton’s asking, rolling the figure over.

It’s a young teenager, probably around their age, with a shock of bright red hair and a nasty-looking black eye. His breaths are ragged, face deathly pale and exposed arms crisscrossed with burns that make Calum blanch.

“Well, you look like you’ve seen better days,” Luke deadpans, helping Ashton get the boy to a sitting position. “What happened to you?”

“Hinox,” the boy gasps, voice weak. “At Herin Lake. Didn’t realize...until it was too late.”

Luke’s brow furrows. “The Hinox burned you like this?”

The boy shakes his head. “Farosh.”

“Farosh?” Ashton clearly wants to ask more, but a look from Luke makes him shut up.

“You're Hylians?” the boy asks.

Luke nods. “All of us, yeah. Let’s get you somewhere where you can rest.”

They make camp in a clearing not far from the bridge, finding a rusted cooking pot left behind by some other travelers. Calum makes himself busy kicking sticks and stones out of the way to clear space for the stranger to relax.

Ashton and Luke help the kid get comfortable, propping him up against a tree and offering him water. The young man doesn’t speak much more, only tells them that his name is Michael before drifting off into unconsciousness.

Later, while Ashton and Luke snooze curled up by the dying embers, Calum is up keeping watch when Michael wakes up a few hours later. “Need something?”

“Water?” Michael croaks.

“Yeah, hang on.” Calum brings a canteen over to him. “You feeling any better?”

Michael shrugs, then winces. “I was about to say yeah, but my arms really fucking hurt. Pro tip, don’t get too close to Farosh. She’ll zap you with her lightning.”

Calum’s jaw drops.

“I don’t think she does it on purpose,” Michael adds. “It kind of happens, if you get too close to her. Otherwise she’ll just fly around.”

“I wish we had some bandages or something. Those look really bad.”

“Eh. Could be worse.”

They sit in silence for a while longer before Michael goes back to sleep. In about an hour, Luke crawls over to sit next to Calum. “Go to sleep. It’s my watch.”

“I’m not tired,” Calum insists even as he stifles a yawn.

“You haven’t slept in an entire day.” Luke nudges Calum’s shoulder. “Sleep.”

“Don’t want to.” Calum looks skyward. The moon is high, nearing its peak over the trees.

“You look at the moon a lot.”

The last thing Calum wants to do is tell Luke about his hatred for the blood moon. He doesn’t want to say he’s been tracking the phases obsessively since he left home, anxiety rising as the moon gets bigger every night. He’s never been out in the open under a blood moon before, not since the first one he saw at the age of eight. So he makes up the dumbest lie he can think of. “Reminds me of my first kiss.” Well, it’s not a complete fib. He did have his first kiss at Hateno Beach at night.

Luke looks surprised at that. “You never struck me as the sentimental type,” he says with a laugh. “First kiss, huh? Who was she?”

“He,” Calum corrects. “Just some guy I played sports with in the fields. His dad worked for the construction company in town.”

“Are you, like...or were you…” Luke makes vague hand motions, seemingly reluctant to ask the question outright.

Calum can’t help but bark out a laugh. “No, no. That was two years ago, and it was just a kiss, anyway.”

“Oh. That’s nice. I mean, sorry.” Luke looks down. Calum searches his face, trying to figure out what he’s thinking. Luke’s...not the easiest person to read. Sure, he comes off as a leader and a warrior, and is the first to tell a wild story, but he says almost nothing about himself. “What?”

“Huh?” Fuck. He’s been caught. “You, um. Have a scrape right there,” he fumbles, tapping at his own cheekbone. It’s true, and Calum privately thinks it makes him look kind of badass.

“I do?” Luke touches his face, furrowing his brow. “I don’t feel it.”

“No, it’s—um.” Calum flaps his hands for a second, then decides to go for it. He reaches out, fingertips grazing over the other boy’s face, careful to avoid the injury. “Right here.”

“Oh, this one? Probably came from the Lizalfos fight.” Luke’s own hand comes up, seeking out the scrape in question, their fingers touching once he finds it. The moonlight washes his fair hair in a white glow, eyes an even icier blue. “Is it bad?”

“No! No, not bad. Actually, I—”

Suddenly, Ashton gives a loud snore, making a noise like a pissed-off Moblin. Calum and Luke stare at each other for a second before bursting into laughter.

“Wish we could have some way to play that sound whenever we wanted. We’d never be bothered again,” Luke jokes.

“They’d run away thinking it was a big angry monster,” Calum adds, giggling. And with that, they lapse back into a comfortable silence. He wonders if he should bring up—whatever it was that just happened. No, he decides in the end, that might make things weirder. Maybe it can stay between them, in this moment. Calum’s okay with that.

He doesn’t realize he’s dozing off till he jolts back to consciousness in the middle of tipping over. He catches himself a second before he crashes into Luke, who just gives him a small smile and ruffles his hair.

“Go to sleep, Cal,” he says softly. “It’s my watch, anyway.”

“Keep us safe.” Calum pokes his side.

Luke laughs, giving his hand the quickest of squeezes before Calum stands up. “I’m the fighter, remember? Long as I’m around, we’re the safest bunch of kids in Hyrule. And that’s a promise.”

In the morning, Michael’s much more lively, chatting about the tiny cabin in the Hebra Mountains that he used to call home. He’s still weak, but he can at least walk on his own, and when Luke tells him they’re leaving to see the world, he’s all in. Calum, Luke, and Ashton all exchange glances. None of them have to say a word. When they set out once more, they leave as a group of four.


	3. Four Years Later

“We’re baaaaack!” Ashton announces as he runs up the steps to Rito Village.

“Wait for us!” Michael yells, huffing and puffing as the rest of the group struggles to keep up.

“We have got to start hiding our haste potions better,” Luke grumbles to Calum as they finally pause on Zayn’s Landing, hands on his knees as he bends over to catch his breath. “Now look how hyper he is.”

A tall bird-man with tawny feathers swoops down to greet them. “You’re back!” he exclaims, warm brown eyes lighting up and wings flapping excitedly.

“Liam!” Ashton yells. “Good to see you again, mate!”

“Same to you! Mikey, your hair is purple!” Liam gawks.

“It’s purple!” Michael touches the bright lavender strands. “Dyed it just last week in Hateno Village with this weird rushroom dye.”

“It looks good! Did you find the Leviathan skeleton?” Liam asks.

“Yeah, look!” Calum pulls out a sketch he’d made of the massive whale bones they’d found half-buried in a cave in the Hebra mountains. “It’s even bigger than the one in the East Deplian Badlands.”

“We wanna try and find the one in Gerudo Desert next,” Luke adds. “That, and I haven’t been home in a long time. Maybe I’ll stop by and visit my parents.”

“Are we finally gonna meet your parents?” Ashton asks excitedly. “They sound awesome!”

“Yeah, you gotta take me home to meet the parents,” Calum teases Luke.

“If you ask me, that’s moving a little fast.” Luke knocks his elbow into Calum’s side.

Liam looks concerned. “I’m not sure going to the desert is the best idea right now.”

“Why not?” Luke crosses his arms. “I grew up there. I know my way around.”

Liam motions skyward. High above them, the Divine Beast Vah Medoh circles menacingly, eyes glowing an evil magenta. As though on cue, the stone beak opens and it lets out a terrifying, mechanized hawk screech.

“She’s been acting up worse than usual,” Liam tells them. “No one knows why. We used to not be able to fly above her, but now some of us can’t even make it half that high. And I’ve heard the other Divine Beasts are the same. You’d have to go near Vah Naboris to make it through the desert, right?”

Luke frowns. “Yeah,” he admits. “I guess we can put that on hold. There’s still places we can go.”

“I’ve always wanted to try looking for the legendary Zora Helm in Toto Lake,” Michael pipes up.

“Oh! Speaking of the Zora, I want to read all the stone monuments. I’ve only seen a few of them in the cliffs,” Ashton adds.

Calum just furrows his brow. By now, the four of them have to be some of the most well-traveled beings in Hyrule save for the traveling salesmen. In fact, they’re more than mere travelers—they’re good warriors, too. Over the years, stories of their exploits have grown legs and taken off. Liam had said so himself, when they last visited four months ago. Why let a finicky Divine Beast cancel their plans? “So why don’t we do something about them?”

“About what?” Luke says.

“The Divine Beasts.”

Everyone turns to look at him with the same incredulous stare.

“You want to what?” Michael blinks.

“Let’s stop the Divine Beasts.”

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Liam cautions. “I think you’re letting your victories in battle get to your head. But these are nothing like the monsters you’re used to fighting.”

Calum laughs, the sound bordering on hysterical. “The four of us can take down a _Lynel_ and you think we can’t shut those things off?”

“It’s not that simple. You need to get close, which none of them will let you do. If you somehow manage it, you’d have to get inside the thing to turn it off, and _then_ you’d have to deal with the incarnations of Calamity Ganon that have possessed each one.” Liam sighs. “I’m not insulting you. I’m saying that this is no ordinary fight.”

“So we destroy them from the outside.”

“Those beasts are ancient Sheikah technology, Calum,” Liam tells him. “Over 10,000 years old. Modern weapons wouldn’t do a thing against them. Only the ancient weapons would be effective, and they’re all lost to time.”

Calum huffs, leaning back against the railing of the platform. “So we’re just going to let it happen?”

“It’s not like we can do anything about it,” Luke says

“Has anyone even tried?” Calum counters. “I left home to fight and to make things right. I don’t want to sit around and be idle while this shit happens.”

“You want to call what we’ve been doing for the last four years being idle? Saving those Zora pups from the flood was us being idle? Storming that Moblin hideout on North Akkala Beach was us being idle? _You_ breaking your leg falling down Satori Mountain happened because you were being idle? What the fuck do you think we’ve been doing? Has this all been a fucking joke to you?” Luke’s voice rises to a shout. He’s never raised his voice like that, not in the four years since they met.

“Luke, you are _yelling_ ,” Michael points out unhelpfully.

“Someone’s gonna get hurt if we do this,” Ashton says, his own voice low. “And not like, a couple scrapes or a broken bone hurt. Like actually seriously hurt. And maybe you left home to fight, but I didn’t leave home to die.”

“Not to mention,” Liam adds, “I’ve also heard rumors that the Hero of Hyrule isn’t dead. If what I heard is true, he’ll awaken soon to set things right, so we really should wait and see what happens.”

“Yeah, sure. There’s no way he’s still alive after almost a hundred years.” Calum rolls his eyes. “I think Hyrule’s waited long enough. Someone has to step up and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be us.”

“I’m not taking you up to Vah Medoh,” Liam insists. “So if you still think this is a good idea, which it’s definitely not, you’ll have to go somewhere else.”

“Then we’ll go to Gerudo Desert like we planned. We can stop Naboris, no problem.” Calum lifts his chin, as though daring anyone to disagree.

Luke does. He gets right up in Calum’s face, the two of them nose-to-nose and the tension crackling between them like a shock arrow. “Do you remember,” he says, voice tight, “the day we found Michael? And how that night, you and I stayed up on my watch and I made a promise that I’d keep you all safe? I’m still standing by that.”

“We’re older now! We can all fight! We’re not the fifteen-year-old kids we were back then.” Calum throws his hands up. “You don’t have to keep playing our protector.”

“Like you’re not trying to do just that for the entirety of Hyrule?” Luke scoffs. “You know what? Fine. We’ll go south. But if something goes wrong, if one of us gets hurt, that shit is gonna be on you, mate,” he bites out.

Calum presses his lips together in a grim but determined line. “Then I guess we’ll leave at sunrise.”

The journey feels uncomfortably quiet most of the way. Usually, when they travel, they don’t stop chatting, but this time it feels tense. Even Ashton, who perpetually tries to start little word games or something of the like, gives up two hours into the journey and only opens his mouth to complain about the weather.

And Luke. Luke only speaks to him when it’s absolutely necessary. But otherwise, he asks Ashton to look at the map with him, asks Michael to grab things from his pack, laughs at Ashton’s terrible puns but makes no comment at all on Calum’s remarks. The most he says in an entire day is to ask Calum for some rock salt.

Well, two can play this game. Calum busies himself with thinking of a battle strategy. He knows they’re more than capable of shutting down the Divine Beasts no matter what Liam said. Their strategies have improved over the years—they have fighting down to a science. They know their battle roles well, and they haven’t met a single monster they can’t take down with a bit of careful planning. There’s no doubt in his mind this won’t be easy, but he clings to the belief that if there’s anyone in Hyrule who could, it will be them.

They finally reach the Gerudo Desert Gateway late in the afternoon on the third day. They can hear the low rumbling cries of Vah Naboris in the distance, and every so often they can see the double humps of the mechanical camel as it plods through the desert, stirring up lightning storms with every thundering step.

“We’re really gonna take that on?” Michael mutters.

“We’re gonna take it on, and we’re gonna win,” Calum corrects, pretending not to notice the sideways look Luke gives him. “It’s just outside Gerudo Town.”

“We should make sure we’re dressed for the desert. Sandstorms can come out of nowhere,” Luke adds, adjusting the halberd strapped to his back.

“Which means?” Ashton asks.

“Cover up. Long sleeves, and use spare clothing to cover your face. At least your mouth and nose. You won’t want sand in either of those places.”

Fortunately they don’t run into any sandstorms on the way into the desert. Since they’re men, they’re not allowed inside the walls of Gerudo Town, but they’re able to rent sand seals just outside of town. Luke shows the rest of them how to attach their shields to the seals’ harnesses, explaining how much quicker they’ll be able to traverse the desert this way. After a brief break to refill their canteens, they’re on their way, the sand seals barking as they take off. The cries of the Divine Beast get louder as they near, its giant mechanical legs shaking the ground with every step it takes.

“Dead ahead!” Calum announces. And almost instantly, he realizes they’ve made a terrible mistake.

Vah Naboris hasn’t just created a lightning storm—it’s created a sandstorm so thick it’s impossible to navigate through. But they’ve made it too far to turn back now. “Stick together!” Calum shouts. The sand whips past him, stinging the exposed skin on his hands and face.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t go around?” Michael’s squinting to try and keep the sand out of his eyes.

“Can you even go around a sandstorm?” Ashton yells back.

“Then shouldn’t we wait until it passes?”

“It won’t! Naboris is the reason it’s happening!” Calum coughs, turning his face to the side to the sand doesn’t fly into his mouth. Fuck. He really should have thought to cover up before right now. “And if we stop it, it’ll end! So it’s now or never!”

“My vote’s for never!” Ashton suggests.

“Calum, come on!” Luke shouts, pulling up next to Calum.

Luke leans in close to speak directly into his ear. “If we go in there, there’s no way we’re all making it out alive.”

“Don’t say that.” Calum shakes his head.

“I grew up here, remember? Please, you gotta trust me.” All Calum can see are his eyes, but it’s enough to know Luke isn’t even angry anymore. For the first time since they’ve met, he doesn't look like the fearless warrior who launches Lizalfos off bridges and throws daggers into Hinox’s eyes without flinching. He looks like a scared nineteen-year-old who’s been on his own for four long years, and is just now realizing he’s afraid to die. “I agreed to let us go this far ‘cause I thought you’d realize once you got here how bad of an idea it was. There’s being brave and there’s being fucking stupid, and I love you but this is fucking stupid.”

Calum pauses. “You love me?”

Luke huffs. “I—yes, I love you! Is that all you’re getting out of this? I love you but we need to—”

“Not the time for romance, lads!” Michael shouts as his sand seal jumps, skittish. “If we’re going we gotta go back now!”

Calum’s eyes lock with Luke’s for a second, and he gives a tiny nod. Luke’s entire body relaxes, shoulders sagging with relief. “We’re heading back!” Luke shouts, snapping the reins with a yell and driving the seal back toward Gerudo Town.

Vah Naboris lets out a shattering bellow, making the sand seals yelp and scatter.

“No!” Calum yanks at the reins, trying to keep pace next to Luke.

“Can you see the town?” Ashton’s voice comes from somewhere to his left.

“Just go straight!”

“Which way is straight?! I don’t know how to go straight!”

Visibility is next to nothing—Luke’s silhouette is hard to discern through the heavy sand. It doesn’t help that Calum can’t open his eyes more than a squint.

“Can you hear me?” Michael screams. “I can see the oasis tower! Follow my voice!”

Galvanized, Calum snaps the reins once more, the sand seal shooting forward with a bark. Michael keeps yelling nonsense so they can follow the sound of his voice. Goddess bless him, honestly. Calum doesn’t even want to think of how the sand must be rubbing his throat raw. He can barely open his own mouth without getting a mouthful of sand.

“I see it too!” Ashton crows from somewhere behind him.

The next thing he knows, he’s sent flying, tumbling head over heels as he loses the grip on the sand seal’s reins, his shield shooting out from under him. He lands with a crash, grunting at the pain erupting in his shoulder.

“What the fuck is that?” Ashton screeches. Calum has no idea what he’s talking about. He staggers to his feet, wincing at the pain in his shoulder, and shouts for Ashton.

The next few moments are a cacophony of sound. Luke’s Thunderspear crackles, Ashton’s screaming, and there's the ominous rumbling of _something_ burrowing under the surface. And on top of it all, the wind still howls over the dunes.

“Does anyone have any bomb arrows?” Luke shouts.

Calum reaches for his quiver, only to find he’s out.

“No!” Michael shouts. “Ran out on—on the way to Death Mountain! Ash?”

“I don’t use bows!”

“It’s a Molduga!” Luke yells. “It’s a fucking Molduga—oh, Goddess above!”

Calum curses under his breath. They’ve never fought a Molduga before, but he knows the stories. Apparently, they’re massive creatures live underground and respond to the slightest sound—when provoked, they’ll breach the sand’s surface like whales, maw open to consume anything in its path. Under any other circumstance he’d be more than game to fight one, but not right now.

He can’t find his sand seal or any of the boys. The Molduga gives an angry roar, its shape just discernible through the sandstorm. He just keeps running, and that’s when he hears the scream.

It’s not Michael’s shouting for them to follow his voice or Ashton panicking, No, it’s _Luke_. And it’s the most chilling sound Calum has ever heard.

“Luke, no!” Ashton bellows. “I’m coming for you!”

“Luke! Where are you?”

“Cal, this way!”

Somehow, Calum finds his way to Michael, who’s managed to hang onto his sand seal. “What happened?” Calum demands.

“Something happened to Luke!” Michael shouts back. “Come on, there’s room on my shield!”

“We can’t go without Luke!”

“I have him!” Ashton emerges next to them with Luke draped over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “We have to go back! Now!” He hops on his shield and snaps the reins, hanging on with one hand as the sand seal takes off.

Michael’s waving frantically at Calum from his own shield. “What are you waiting for? It’s not gonna stop! Jump on!”

After a second of hesitation, Calum jumps on the shield just behind Michael, holding onto his shoulders as the seal races toward Kara Kara Bazaar. And for the first time in his life, he sends up a prayer to the Goddess. _Please let him be okay_.

They upset several fruit merchants when they drive the sand seals right into the heart of Kara Kara Bazaar. “Where do we go?” Ashton’s still yelling. The sight of Luke draped across his shoulders, bloodied and bruised, probably doesn’t help.

Calum wipes some sand from his eyes. “Doesn’t his family still live here?”

“Yes! Um…” Fuck. None of them know his parents’ names. Calum runs up to a Gerudo woman sitting behind a fruit stand. “Hi! Sorry, have you lived here a while?”

“Sav’aaq to you as well. Good day.” She nods. “Your friend looks like he needs medical attention."

“Do you know where his parents live? Um, fuck, he’s nineteen, his mom’s Gerudo and his dad’s Hylian, I feel like he said his mom’s name was Liz…”

The woman cuts him off. “Kara Kara Bazaar has not had permanent residents in about three years.”

Calum can feel his heart sinking. “What does that mean?”

“All the residents left, and their empty houses were torn down for repairs in Gerudo Town. Damage caused from Vah Naboris, you see. Everyone you see here lives elsewhere.” The woman offers him a strange-looking reddish fruit. “Really, this is just a marketplace.”

“Shit. Sorry. Um, thanks.” Calum turns to leave, but the woman stops him.

“Take him to the inn and ask for Rena. She will help you.”

“The inn. Right. And that is…”

“In the main building. Do you have any more questions, or do you want to let your friend keep bleeding out?” She points behind him, where neither Ashton nor Michael look like they know where they’re going.

“Thank you!” Calum inclines his head toward her before running back to the boys. “Come on! This way!”

Ashton carries Luke up the stairs as carefully as he can. Luke’s still conscious, if the faint moans and grunts are any indication. “In here?” he asks, opening the door.

“Yeah, she said to ask for Rena.”

“That would be me,” a Hylian woman with bright pink hair pipes up. “How can I help you?”

“Um, the voltfruit woman told me to ask for you? She said you’d help?” Calum runs up to the counter, slamming his hands down. He probably looks half-crazed, covered in sand and eyes desperate. “Please. Whatever you can do. I’ll pay you back someday.”

“Okay, okay.” She scurries out from behind the counter with a pair of shears, waving them over to an empty bed. “Put him down.”

Luke groans as Ashton sets him down, eyes shut tight and face pinched. His leg is twisted at a sickening angle, and that’s not even counting the damage they can’t see.

“Easy, easy,” Rena mumbles, holding up the shears and giving Calum a sideways glance when he gasps. “Don’t worry, I’m just getting his shirt out of the way.”

“Oh, Goddess,” Ashton mutters. “That looks really fucking bad.”

He looks even worse now that they can see all of his battle wounds laid out in front of them. His torso is bruised all over and there’s a nasty-looking bump over his collarbone. Rena touches it and Luke grunts in pain.  

“It might be broken. Can someone help me with his trousers, please?”

Michael helps Rena cut through the thin materials of his trousers, gently tugging them away so they can take a look. No amount of bracing himself is going to help, so Calum just swallows thickly and forces himself to look. He’s no medic, but he’s pretty sure an ankle isn’t meant to bend that way.

“Cal? You okay?” he hears Ashton ask him. He manages to shake his head before he blacks out.

When he comes to, the first thing he sees is Michael’s face, peering at him worriedly. “Cal? Calum? Are you awake?”

Calum nods slowly. “What happened?”

“You passed out.” Michael stands up straight. “Hey, guys! He’s awake!”

Calum winces at the loudness. “Fuck, my head hurts. Is Luke okay?”

“He’ll be okay,” Michael says, though he doesn’t look too sure. “I found a traveling salesman who said he’s going to Rito Village. He’ll take a message to Liam.”

“You really think he’s in good enough shape to fly him all the way back there?” Ashton’s voice comes from somewhere near Luke’s bed.

“I’m hoping. Or maybe he can at least bring us some supplies.”

Calum props himself up on his elbows to look at Luke, wincing at a stabbing pain in his shoulder. Their beds are close enough that Calum can hear every rattling breath Luke takes. Ashton is hunched over him, patching up some of the less severe scrapes, while Rena tightens the ties on a lower-leg splint. Luke’s eyes are open, but he looks out of it.

“Gave him some shrooms,” Rena explains. “It’s all I have as far as a painkiller for now. His leg’s almost done, then all we have to do is get his arm in a sling.”

“Is his leg broken, too?”

“I’m not sure. His ankle might be sprained, maybe a few torn ligaments, but I don’t know enough to tell. I figured I’d go ahead and splint it just in case.”

“Can I help?”

Rena quirks a brow. “You passed out just looking at him. Do you think you’re going to be much help? Not only that, but I’m pretty sure you have bruised ribs. You need to rest, too.”

Reluctant, Calum lies back down. He doesn’t even want to look at himself, too afraid to see what damage he’s taken. He’s sore all over, his left shoulder throbs with pain, and it hurts to breathe in too deeply—but compared to Luke, they might as well be scratches. Ashton and Michael look exhausted and a little battered, but otherwise in decent shape.

The last thing Luke had said back in Rito Village creeps up in the back of his mind. _If something goes wrong, if one of us gets hurt, that shit is gonna be on you, mate._ The words taunt him, reminding him this is completely his fault. Luke tried to talk him down twice, and still he insisted, thinking they could…

He throws an arm across his face so no one can see him choke back tears.

The next three days, Calum does little other than sit by Luke’s side while Rena and the other boys attend to him. Rena tells him to sleep, but he can’t. Not when Luke’s in this shape, and especially not when it’s his own fault. As for Luke, he drifts in and out of consciousness. He doesn’t say words, just makes soft groans and mutters of acknowledgements when he’s asked questions. After night has fallen and everyone else has gone to sleep, Calum stays up to keep watch, Luke’s hand in both of his own as he prays.

Liam arrives on the third day, armed with extra first aid supplies. “I came as fast as I could,” he says as he blusters into the inn. “How is he?”

“He’s asleep right now, but he’s pretty stable,” Rena tells him. “Still in a lot of pain, but we haven’t had a lot to work with. The constant temperature changes out here can’t be good for him either.”

“Is he stable enough to take back to Rito Village? If we can make some kind of litter, I can fly him back in the village in a few hours,” Liam says.

The next few hours are spent scraping together supplies. Rena provides them with a wooden board large enough for Luke to lie on, and Calum busies himself padding it with blankets and feathered pillows.

“What if he wakes up in the middle of the flight and starts panicking?” Michael asks suddenly.

“I can give him a mild sedative,” Rena suggests. “Liam, is twelve hours long enough to fly him back to Rito Village?"

“More than enough time.”

“Perfect. I’ll find a sleeping elixir.”

Luke wakes up while Calum’s fluffing the pillows around him. “S’happening?” he croaks out. It’s the first word he’s said in days.

“We’re going back to Rito Village,” Calum says softly, trying not to let his voice shake. “Just go back to sleep, okay? You’re gonna be fine.”

Luke nods sleepily. “What day is it?”

“Three days since we went after Naboris.”

Luke doesn’t say any more after that. Calum takes a small bit of comfort in the fact that he was lucid at least for a minute. That’s progress.

Liam takes off an hour later, after they’ve given Luke the sedative and secured him to the litter. “Well,” Ashton says, “guess we’d better get going, too.”

“Calum, a moment?” Rena asks him, motioning for him to join her in a secluded corner of the inn. “He’ll be okay.”

Calum furrows his brow. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I can tell you’re beating yourself up over it when you shouldn’t, and it’s obvious you care about him in a way you don’t feel for the other boys. I know you stayed up sitting by his side.” Rena gives him a meaningful glance. “And I also saw you kiss his hand the other night.”

Calum blushes and splutters. “He’s—well, we’ve been together a long time.”

Rena just smiles. “I know you’re worried about him, but you need to take care of yourself, too. Is breathing any easier?”

“A little.”

“Good, then maybe your ribs aren’t as bad as I thought. Just take it easy and remember to take deep breaths when you can.” She pats him on the back as Michael comes up to them.

“Cal, almost ready to go?”

The overland journey back to Rito Village takes nearly four days, compared to the two it had taken in the opposite direction. None of them can take a heavy pace, so they take it easy, being liberal with pauses and bivouacking overnight rather than staying up to cover more ground. None of them speak much, all preferring to save their energy, but on the second night, Ashton pulls him aside after Michael’s gone to sleep.

“You do know that none of us blame you for this, right?” he asks.

“You don’t have to lie.”

“I’m not.”

Calum knows he’s not. Ashton’s terribly sincere, is the thing, has been that way since they met; he means every word he says. Yet Calum can’t bring himself to believe they all truly hold him blameless.

They arrive in Rito Village as the sun reaches its peak on the fourth day. Liam meets them at the first bridge and shows them up to his dwelling, where the three of them immediately collapse on bedrolls Liam set out for them.

When Calum wakes up, he hears Ashton and Michael talking in low voices on the other side of Liam’s tent, their heads close.

Ashton notices him first. “Oh, you’re up! Come on over. Or actually, we’ll come to you.”

Calum huffs. “I can move, you know,” he mutters, but he does appreciate not having to exert himself walking all the way to the other side of the tent. He has a feeling he knows what they’re about to say.

“It’s not your fault,” Ashton and Michael say at the same time

That’s exactly what he expected, but it doesn’t make him feel any better. “Oh, for Hylia’s sake, will you stop?” Calum snaps. “You don’t have to be nice. I know it’s my fault, okay? I fucking know it’s my fault!”

“Whoa, Calum, hang on,” Michael tries to cut in, but Calum won’t have it. He’s tired of everyone walking on eggshells about it.

“It was stupid! I know! We shouldn’t have gone, and I know that! Yeah, okay, Luke was right, I was trying to play the hero, and it was a stupid thing to do, ‘cause we almost lost Luke and I—”

“Calum!” Ashton finally shouts. “Shut up and listen to me! We’re not blaming you, okay? Yeah, it was kind of stupid, but you can’t think all of this was your fault. We agreed! We’re just as stupid as you!”

“Luke could be _dying_ and you think I wasn’t at least a little bit responsible?”

“He’s not dying, you dense fuck!” Michael’s screaming too, now, and Calum doesn’t think they’ve ever fought like this. “He’s gonna be fine, and you’re gonna be fine, and maybe what we all need is a break!"

Uncomfortable silence blankets the three of them. A...break. Calum just blinks, unsure what that’s supposed to mean.

Ashton is the first to speak. “A break?"

“A break.” Michael nods. “I think...I think we’ve been pushing our luck. First it was Hinoxes, and then it was Lynels, and now it’s this, and Luke’s hurt and I think we got in over our heads. I don’t know about you lads, but honestly, I think it’s time for me to settle down. Like...this life isn’t for me anymore.”

“Me either,” Ashton adds. “I feel like I’ve seen everything by now, and I’m tired of fighting. I liked helping people, but…” He shrugs. “Yeah. I’m tired of fighting.”

“I was thinking about opening a combination stable and inn,” Michael says. “There are so many wild horses in Hyrule, and it would help travelers cut their travel times.”

“I like that,” Ashton says slowly. “Maybe all four of us could set up stables across Hyrule. You know, make like a network or something like that.”

“That could be cool,” Michael agrees.

Calum still hasn’t said anything, too shocked by the suggestion to formulate his thoughts. All _four_ of them establish stable inns, which implies they’d split up? Give up the adventure they’ve been on for the last four years? “But what about us?” is all he can get out.

“What _about_ us?” Ashton quirks a brow. “We’ll still be friends. Right?”

“We don’t have to fight anymore. Remember all the things we said we still wanted to do and see? Ash, didn’t you want to see the Zora stone monuments?” He’s grasping at straws, he knows it, but the prospect of going solo after spending the last four years living out of each other’s pockets is a daunting one.

“Cal.” Michael puts a hand on his uninjured shoulder. “You don’t have to. But I think we’ve made up our minds,” he says, glancing at Ashton, who gives a single nod.

Calum stands up, chewing on the inside of his mouth. “I see how it is.” Ignoring whatever Michael’s trying to say to him, he walks down to Zayn’s Landing, where he stays for the rest of the day. They’re wrong, on every level. It’s definitely his fault, but splitting up isn’t the answer. But it’s not like he has a better one.

Michael and Ashton leave him alone for the rest of the day, but Liam finds him down on the landing at sunset. “How are you feeling? Michael said you might have bruised your ribs,” Liam says, perching next to him.

“I’m fine,” Calum says shortly.

“You’re not fine.” Liam’s brow ridge creases. “Ash and Mikey said they wanted to split up the gang.”

“How could they do that?” Calum bursts out. “Just give up on everything?”

“They’re not saying it to give up.” Liam drapes a wing across Calum’s shoulders. “And they don’t blame you. They really don’t. I think they’re scared, and after what happened, can you blame them? Listen to me,” Liam continues before Calum can interrupt. “Part of me really wants to give you a lecture about not looking for trouble, but I’m no good at lectures and I don’t think it’d help. But honestly, I think a break could be a good idea.”

Calum can’t think of a response to that.

Liam’s voice softens. “Luke needs at least a month to recover, even with the healing elixirs. You have time to decide.”

The month crawls by. Ashton and Michael make it their personal mission to set Liam up with a pretty lavender-feathered Rito named Sophia, while Calum spends every moment he has by Luke’s side. And slowly but surely, Luke recovers. He’s back to being lucid most of the time, sitting up and being chatty by the end of the first week. His arm is in a sling to help the broken collarbone heal, and the splint gets traded for a tightly wrapped bandage. His ankle isn’t actually broken, Calum’s told, but badly sprained. Luke spends most of the first two weeks with ice packed around his ankle and his foot propped up on pillows.

The third week, Luke insists on trying to walk on his own. He makes it two steps across the tent before collapsing, face contorted in pain. But Liam makes him a crutch, and days later he’s hobbling around slowly, but he’s moving.

Calum refuses to think about how the one-month deadline is creeping up on them, and he refuses to bring up the future. But he can’t put it off forever. At the end of the fourth week, Michael makes the four of them sit down and talk. It’s the most unpleasant conversation he’s ever been a part of, Calum thinks as he listens to Ashton tell Luke about his ideas for a stable inn.

“I think you lads would be good at that,” Luke tells them.

“What about you?” Michael asks.

Luke looks at Calum, but Calum won’t look back. The blond sighs. “I don’t know yet. I...have to think about it."

Later that night, Calum’s curled up in Luke’s blanket nest with him. “What’s your plan?” Luke asks.

Calum shrugs. “I don’t know. I can’t see myself running a stable.”

“You’re not thinking of…” Luke shakes his head. “Even after all this?”

“I can’t go home. Who am I without this?” Calum whispers. It’s a scary realization to come to, that he would have absolutely no idea what he’d do with himself if he weren’t roaming the wilds of Hyrule.

Luke laughs humorlessly. “Who are you? Calum, you’re a lot of things. But first, you’re a fucking idiot.” He reaches out with the arm he can move, thumb brushing lightly over Calum’s cheek. “You’re so brave. You’re a fighter, and you’re noble, and yeah, you’re kinda reckless, but you’re definitely a fucking idiot for trying to take all the blame for this.”

“You literally said if one of us got hurt, it’d be on me.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t mean it. And I’m not gonna say some shit like I forgive you, ‘cause there’s nothing to forgive.” Luke snuggles into Calum’s side.

“Hey, you wanna revisit that conversation you started back in the sandstorm?” Calum says after a few moments of silence. “You know, when you said you love me?”

“What about it?” Luke smiles up at him. “I do.”

“Even though I almost got you killed?”

“If you keep trying to take the blame, I’m gonna change my mind.”

“Nope, it’s out, so you can’t take it back.” Calum ruffles Luke’s hair. “I guess I love you too.”

When Liam walks in on them kissing a few minutes later, he pretends he hasn’t seen anything, bowing out as quickly as he’d entered.

Calum wakes at dawn, buried deep under the blankets, to the savory smell of salmon meuniere cooking somewhere in the village. He drags himself to the cooking pot, where he finds the other boys already dressed. Ashton and Michael’s backpacks are in the corner, with Luke’s crutch propped up on them. Sophia’s at the cooking pot, a stack of plates in her hand.

“Morning, Calum. Hungry?” she asks, serving him a helping of the fish. “Even if you’re not, you’d best eat up. You’ve got a long way to go.”

“I do?” Calum looks at Ashton and Michael, then at the backpacks on the floor. “Where are you lads going?”

“I’m thinking about East Akkala,” Ashton says. “You know, at the base of the hill where the tech lab is. Mikey said something about the Lanayru region?”

Michael shakes his head. “Nah, I don’t think I want to go back that way. I was thinking about somewhere in the southern Tabantha region. Luke?”

“Luke?” Calum repeats, stopping with his fork midway to his mouth. “You’re...you’re gonna do it, too?”

Luke looks at him. “I still haven’t decided. I’m obviously in no shape to be building stables or taming wild horses or any of that just yet. But if I do...I’d want to go back to the Gerudo Highlands.”

He’d go back to the Gerudo Highlands. No invitation, no mention of going together. “Then I guess I’ve got to find somewhere for my own. Somewhere kind of in the middle. How about...by the Dueling Peaks?”

“Wait, Luke, what are you going to do in the meantime?” Michael asks him.

Luke shrugs, while Sophia pipes up with, “You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you need.”

“When are you leaving?

“I’m leaving as soon as I finish this salmon,” Ashton says. “It’s a long way out to East Akkala.”

“Me, too,” Michael adds. “I’m hoping to get to the southern snowfield before the afternoon so I can start building.”

That settles it. Calum decides he’ll leave with them. Packing only takes him a minute, not that he has many possessions anyway, and before he knows it he’s standing at the bridge that connects the mountainous island that’s home to Rito Village to the shore. Liam, Sophia, and Luke come down to see them off. They say their goodbyes, Liam wrapping Calum up in his hefty wings and making him promise not to chase danger anymore, while Sophia ruffles his hair and tells him to keep in touch.

Then it’s just Luke. “When will I see you again?” Calum finds the nerve to ask.

Luke gives him a watery smile. “Before you know it.”

Calum can’t bring himself to say the word ‘goodbye.’ Instead he just kisses Luke and turns away.

He doesn’t look back, because if he does, he might not make it across the bridge.


	4. Epilogue

The next three years are the loneliest ones Calum’s ever known. He only sees the other boys a few times a year, at the most—the rest of the time, he relies on Steve, the traveling salesman, to carry messages to them. Part of him sees the isolation as his penance for rushing them into a terrible situation and almost losing Luke in the process. The rest of him knows it was probably bound to happen sooner or later.

He and Luke try to maintain a long-distance relationship at first, but they drift apart as the months plod on. They call their breakup a mutual decision, but they both know it was Luke’s idea. It’s okay. Calum can be a grown-up about it. He drafts eleven different responses and scraps them all—what can he say after four years suddenly ends with a letter? He ends up not sending anything in the wake of the split, but he does his best to make good on his promise to stay friends.

He does make a new friend: Josh, a Rito who travels the world playing his concertina. He wants to learn the songs and the stories of every region of Hyrule, he tells Calum. Each time he returns to the stable, he’s learned five or six new songs.

The travelers trickle in and out of the stable. It’s still dangerous to go out, so he doesn’t see many amateurs. Most of his patrons are researchers, or salesmen, or artists or the like. No one out just to see the world because it’s there. And certainly no teenagers.

He’d definitely go crazy without Steve. Steve tells him everything, like how Michael dyes his hair almost every color in the rainbow, except for pink because he can’t find enough ingredients to make the dye. How Ashton’s made friends with the mysterious scientists who live in the tech lab on top of the hill and only emerge for food. How Luke still walks with a slight limp even as the one-year mark approaches, and how midway through the second year he started courting a handsome Hylian scientist who passes through on his way into the desert to study voltfruit cacti. Calum pretends not to be bothered by that information.

Calum’s happy for them, he really is. He’s just bored as hell. How is he supposed to go from waking up somewhere new every day with his sights set on new horizons to this monotony? Steve notices, and before long, Josh notices, too.

“Your fire’s gone,” Josh tells him one day with a frown. “You didn’t even laugh at the song I played. It was full of dick jokes!”

“Sorry, Josh,” Calum mutters, resting his chin on his hands. “I guess I’m just…not feeling much of anything."  


“Want me to play the Zora drinking song again?”

“Sure.” But even that isn’t enough to bring his spirits up.

He keeps track of the days in his notepad. Exactly three years to the day they tempted Vah Naboris, something interesting finally happens.

It’s nothing at first: some traveler, like any other, but this one says his name is Louis. What a funny name, Calum thinks. Just like the hero from a hundred years before. He rents him a horse and sends him on his way, expecting not to see him again for a week or so, or maybe ever.

But Louis comes back later that night, asking to stay the night. Calum still doesn’t think much of it. He puts Louis in the bed next to Nick, the traveling artist, and goes back to his business, making sure the horses have all been fed.

He stays up late that night, making sure his accounts are all correct, hardly noticing the full moon rising over the peaks. When he finally looks up, he sees it. That sickly pink glow coats the cliffs outside the tent, the smoky tendrils rising into the sky.

Great. The blood moon is back. It still gives him an uneasy feeling, but he’s not scared of it like he used to be. He’s resigned himself to the knowledge that the demons he thought he killed will always come back to taunt him. He sighs, shutting the ledger. He certainly won’t be getting any more work done tonight.

Behind him, he hears shuffling. Louis is out of bed. Calum shrugs. He’s probably getting some fresh air. He knows the tent can be a bit stuffy in the warm months.

Louis isn’t out for very long. He runs back inside, collapsing to the floor in a pile of uncoordinated limbs. Without thinking, Calum dashes over to him, comforting hands sliding across shaking shoulders. Louis definitely isn’t okay, though he tries to say he is.

And Calum finds himself in the role of having to explain what a blood moon is, just like his mother explained it to him so many years before.

“What the fuck?” Louis whispers, head in his hands. “What’s the point?”

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” Calum tells him.

Louis is still shaking like a Korok leaf in the wind. “How do you know all this?”

Calum tells him everything. He tells Louis about how his great-granddad died, about how he left home in search of revenge, about how he met up with Luke and Ashton and Michael. He even tells Louis about what happened in the desert. He’s not even sure if the man is listening, but he keeps talking anyway, feeling Louis’ breath start to stabilize.

“I feel like my great-granddad is trying to tell me something, but I don’t know what.”

“He’s telling you it’s not over. Kind of like…this is a second chance,” Louis says.

Goddess, what Calum wouldn’t give to go back three years and do things differently. He gives Louis a wry smile and gets him back into bed, before deciding it’s probably time to hit the hay himself.

His mind won’t let him sleep, though. The man looks eerily like the hero of all the stories, and even has the same name. At first Calum just chalked it up to coincidence—it’s damn near a hundred years by now, after all. But something about Louis won’t leave him alone, and it’s driving him crazy. He tosses and turns until he sees the first light, and then goes around waking up the guests.

He busies himself getting Ted ready for Louis and stoking the fire under the cooking pot. Outside, Louis has climbed up to sit in the branches of an apple tree. Weird. Calum shrugs and goes about his usual routine. And before he knows it, Ted’s saddled up and Louis is ready to go. “Safe travels, if I don’t see you again.” Even as he says it, he has a feeling that won’t be true.

The moment Louis has ridden off and is out of earshot, Calum runs out from behind the counter. “Steve! I need to get a message to the boys. And fast.”

“I can tell Josh next time I see him. What’s the urgency?”

“Tell them the stories are true. The Hero’s alive, and he’s come back.” Calum pauses. “Tell them I was wrong.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, that was fun! (for me at least, haha.) thank you for reading! please let me know what you thought in the comments, or come say hi on tumblr at my [main blog](http://maybetheyrefireproof.tumblr.com) or my [loz sideblog](http://leafviolin.tumblr.com)!


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